"Back Door Man" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1961. It was released by Chess Records as the B-side to Wolf's "Wang Dang Doodle" (catalog no. 1777). The song is considered a classic of Chicago blues.
In southern culture, the phrase "back-door man" refers to a man having an affair with a married woman, using the back door as an exit before the husband comes home.[1] "When everybody trying to sleep, I'm somewhere making my midnight creep / Every morning the rooster crow, something tell me I got to go / I am a back door man," Wolf sings. The promiscuous "back-door man" is a standard theme found in many blues, including those by Charley Patton, Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Willie McTell and Sara Martin: "every sensible woman got a back-door man," Martin wrote in "Strange Loving Blues" (1925).[2] Robert Plant references the Dixon song in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (1969): "Shake for me girl, I want to be your back-door man."[3][dead link] The phrase "back-door man" dates from the 1920s, but the term became a double entendre in the 1960s, also meaning "man who practices anal intercourse."[4]
The song was recorded in Chicago in June 1960 by Howlin' Wolf (vocals), Otis Spann (piano), Hubert Sumlin and Freddy Robinson (guitars), Willie Dixon (double bass), and Fred Below (drums).[5] The chord progression in the refrain of the song, similar to that found in Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man" (1955), John Lee Hooker's "I'm Mad (Again)" (1957), and Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man" (1954), dates back to work songs sung during the construction of train tracks.[6] "Back Door Man" was included on the 1962 Wolf compilation album Howlin' Wolf. He re-recorded the song in November 1968 and it appeared on The Howlin' Wolf Album.
The Doors recorded a rock version of the "Back Door Man" for their eponymous debut album. The "door" of the song, like the name of the band, suggests a Blakean symbol of perception, with an awareness of the 1960s Queer-culture double entendre, giving the expression an additional layer of meaning.[8] The Doors' drummer John Densmore described the song as "deeply sexual and got everyone moving."[9] The song also appears on The Doors' live album Absolutely Live (1970).
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